Launching your career at the Canadian Space Agency
Luke Watkinson (he/him) is a third-year Materials and Nano Science student. He discusses working with the Canadian Space Agency, discovering his passion through co-op and gaining confidence along the way.
Luke's co-op journey:
Work term one: In his first work term, Luke was a research and development assistant at Givr Chemical Corp. He helped come up with different prototypes for additives to polymer materials and then ran experiments on them.
Work term two: As part of the OSIRIS-REx team at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Luke worked on astro material curation. He helped design the facility and equipment as well as procedures and experiments in anticipation of an asteroid sample they were going to receive from NASA.
Q&A with Luke:
Can you tell me about your experience at the Canadian Space Agency?
“One of the biggest highlights was just being at the Canadian Space Agency. Even the most mundane thing is very interesting there, because it's for the Canadian Space Agency and for this big and important project. It gives you a real sense of purpose. Canada’s going to be the third country in the world to have an asteroid sample which is a very big deal. It’s our first asteroid sample as a country and it felt amazing being a part of that mission.”
“Another amazing aspect of working with CSA was that I got access to a lot of equipment and was able to add these experiences to my résumé - I wouldn't be able to do that anywhere else. One of those things was using a scanning electron microscope, which is a very expensive instrument. Normally, you don't touch those as a co-op student, but I was able to work with that day to day for nearly two months.”
How do you feel now as compared to your first work term?
“In my first work term, I was pretty nervous. I had no idea what to expect, especially getting into a science job because I had no relevant work experience. Nothing can really prepare you for that. Now, I know what to expect and how to handle things in a new environment.”
“I think an important part of co-op is getting all these chances to try new things and find out what you like and what you don’t like. Going into a new co-op term, I’m still nervous because the nature of co-op is that every job is very different. However, I'm more excited than nervous. I am excited to expand my horizons and learn new things.”
What was a challenge you faced during your work terms?
“My work term at the CSA was a very independent job. I was working alone a lot. Our team consisted of three people and both of my supervisors were extremely busy, so I pretty much ran the lab myself and was alone every day. I had to come up with creative ways to handle problems. Whenever I was presented with a problem, it was almost like a last resort to go to my supervisor because they likely had something more important that they needed to do."
"I was encouraged to be independent and problem solve autonomously. I knew that there were people I could talk to in case of an emergency, but if I could figure out a problem on my own, I would try my best to do that.”
“Another big challenge was that there were a lot of people from different fields, so it was very much an interdisciplinary team.”
How did you manage working on tight timelines?
“It is a lot of log-keeping and planning, particularly in a laboratory setting. The hardest part about working in a laboratory is that when you’re running tests for the first time, you have no idea how long it’s going to take."
"So, the important part was to keep track, especially on the first few runs when I did an experiment. This helped me plan things for the next time I did the test and plan out my time. I would have lab work and then write-ups on the lab work or separate research studies for my supervisors.
What’s next for you?
“I have two more work terms left, so I will try something different, at least for the next one. The job search period is exciting and stressful because of so many due dates. I have one more four-month term for which I may return to CSA.”
“Once I graduate in 2026, I'll probably look into doing a master's and from there trying to get into the industry and find something that I'm passionate about. I'm so thankful for co-op for giving me an insight into what jobs are available in the future. Doing something over a four-month work term is so much better than committing to it as a job and then having to change pace.”